Jiobit Review

The smallest kids can benefit from the Jiobit, a pure tracker that clips onto clothing or shoes. It doesn't make phone calls, but it can help prevent your kid from getting lost on the playground or on the bus.

4.0

Excellent

The Bottom Line

The Jiobit tracker is a small, convenient way to keep tabs on children who might roam via Bluetooth and GPS.

Pros

Small.

Rugged and waterproof.

Acts both as a proximity leash and GPS tracker.

Cons

No calling capability or location history.

GPS trackers are for people who want to be tracked. Fortunately, small children generally do: Kids under the age of 10 don't want to get lost, and when they're lost, they want to be found. For pure tracking, as opposed to voice communication, the Jiobit is the best product we've seen so far. Jiobit is an American startup, run by ex-Motorola employees. That's relevant because the company has very responsive customer support, and the fit and finish on its product speaks of years in the wireless industry. The Jiobit tracker ($149.99; $99.99 with a one-year contract) is small, affordable, attractive, and convenient, with an innovative Bluetooth leash feature. It's our Editors' Choice for GPS kid trackers and potentially wandering elderly people.

How to Wear Jiobit

The Jiobit itself is a rubbery teardrop, about as long as your pinky finger at 1.45 by 1.97 by 0.47 inches (HWD). It's gray on the front and white on the back. At 0.77-ounce, it's almost unnoticeably light. Two holes on the back can take a standard lanyard loop or an included belt clip, which clips securely to clothing. The device also comes with a charging cradle. It's relatively rugged, and IP68 waterproof. Dumping it in a bucket of water for half an hour caused no issues.

The company provides a bunch of other examples of how to wear the tracker. It can be tied into shoelaces, for instance, or threaded through a hair band. And unlike the Trax Play, the Jiobit is a quiet, low-key design, so kids won't be broadcasting, "I'm wearing a tracking device," to everyone around them.

DokiWatch S

B'zT Washable Tracker T-Shirt

Tech Details

Under the device's skin, there's an AirPrime HL8548-G module from Sierra Wireless, which connects to both 2G and 3G networks, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Jiobit runs its own virtual wireless carrier that combines T-Mobile 2G and AT&T 3G coverage. You can't see the Jiobit's signal strength, so you have to take it on faith, which is a little frustrating. I like how AngelSense gives you battery and signal strength stats in its app. The Jiobit does tell you when it completely loses coverage, though.

The company says the device has a one-week battery, but ours fell far short of that: We were down to 62 percent after one day. Expect to recharge it every two or three days if you use it frequently.

The 'bit has a few different pricing plans. You can get it for $99.99, with a commitment to a $9.99/month annual contract. Or you can pay $149.99, and turn $7.99 monthly service on and off when you want it. Each additional device costs $3.99 to serve. That's a bit more expensive than some of the competing products we've looked at: The LG GizmoPal 2 is $79.99 plus $5/month, and the Republic Wireless Relay and Trax Play are both $99. But we think the Jiobit is worth it, especially because of its unique Bluetooth leash feature.

Using Jiobit

Unlike most trackers, Jiobit's hybrid tracking works both as a traditional GPS and as a Bluetooth tether. It works with a well-designed Android or iOS app that shows where your child is and who they're with, if they're with an approved caregiver who's running the Jiobit app. The Jiobit's owner can invite other app users to be caretakers of a Jiobit. Once they're attached to an account, their phones will automatically connect to the Jiobit when it's in range (if they have Bluetooth on).

In Bluetooth mode, the Jiobit leans on the caretaker's phone's location services. All caretakers can see which caretaker is with a Jiobit, the caretaker/Jiobit's location (which is pretty much instantaneously updated), and roughly how far away the Jiobit is from the caretaker. The caretaker can set a Bluetooth tether to short-range or long-range modes. In short-range mode, it'll trigger an alert when the Jiobit gets about 20 feet away from the phone; long-range mode is up to 70 feet away. That's superior to the B'zT patch's Bluetooth tracking ability, which only has a long-range mode and doesn't show exactly how far the device is from the caretaker.

There's also a little buzzer that a caretaker can trigger when the Jiobit is connected via Bluetooth. While it doesn't have voice calling, I can see parents setting up some Morse Code-like buzzer codes with their kids—like, if they get buzzed twice, shout "Marco Polo!"

Leave Bluetooth range, and the Jiobit falls into GPS mode. You can see the last place the Jiobit was detected (it updates every 10 minutes) or enter a live navigation mode, which continuously queries the Jiobit and gives you directions from where you are to where it is.

Caretakers can set Trusted Places, which are geofences where they'll be alerted when the device enters or leaves a radius. It can be from 100 to 800 feet around a point. The alert on your phone is pretty low-key, unlike the loud alarm that that B'zT sends. You need to be looking out for it.

In GPS mode, location accuracy was typical for a GPS-based trackers: It was often about half a block off. At one point, it was four blocks off, but reset itself to the correct location 30 seconds later. AngelSense is more accurate, but it's much clunkier to use and more expensive.

And here's where that hybrid GPS/Bluetooth situation comes in handy again. If you get close enough to the Jiobit, it will automatically re-pair on Bluetooth, and then you can use the distance bar to see how far you are and activate the buzzer. The company is also adding handy features on a regular basis.

Unlike with the AngelSense and the Dokiwatch S, there's no location history. You can't check in midday and see whether your kid took a detour on the way to school, for instance. Jiobit is all about now. You'll pay a lot more per month for the bulky AngelSense, but the Jiobit is not an alternative if you want to know absolutely everywhere your special needs child has been all day.

Can We Talk?

Throughout this review I keep saying, "purely for tracking." That's because as I've been testing child wearables with my own daughter over the past 12 years of her life, I've found it really useful to talk to her sometimes. When she's gotten lost on the playground, for instance, it's a lot easier to tell her, "Just go to the sprinklers," than to try to track down a GPS tag. Or when she didn't get picked up from school, it helped that she could call me and we could talk it out.

I'm not going to ding the Jiobit for this, because it wouldn't be able to include voice communication while still being so small, rugged, and embeddable into clothing. Those are all big pluses. But the LG GizmoGadget and the Republic Wireless Relay, for example, combine tracking and voice communication in ways parents might find more convenient. (They have their own downsides: The GizmoGadget is a watch, which can get uncomfortable, and the Relay is big and thus loseable.)

Pure tracking devices like the Jiobit, the B'zT, and the Traxy Play, make the most sense on very small children, who wouldn't be calling you anyway, or elderly people with dementia. The Jiobit is much more expensive and complicated to use than the B'zT, which has no monthly fee and doesn't require recharging. But I think the difference is worth it for a product that can actually tell you where your child is, and not just that they aren't by your side. For this reason, the Jiobit earns our Editor's Choice for GPS trackers.

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Further Reading

About Sascha Segan

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed more than 1,100 smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 15 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks projects in the US and Canada, runs our Race to 5G tracker, and writes opinions on tech and society. Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite cities are Barcelona and Hong Kong. While he's a fourth-generation Manhattanite, he now lives in Queens with his wife and daughter.

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